As one can expect, the hallways of the Major League Baseball winter meetings were buzzing on Tuesday night as word filtered out that the Detroit Tigers had traded their two best prospects and four other players for Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis. The national media is almost uniform in their praise of both the Tigers and the Marlins for this deal.

Starting with ESPN, Keith Law writes on ESPN.com that the Tigers offense should really pop when they put Miguel Cabrera in the middle of it.

December 4, ESPN Insider: After finishing second in the league in 2007 with 887 runs scored -- in a pitchers' park, no less -- the Tigers have kicked Sean Casey to the curb and replaced him with Edgar Renteria, and now they are adding Miguel Cabrera's bat to, in effect, replace Brandon Inge's. It's a 70-80 run swing, and if you're going to give up half your farm system, that's the kind of impact you want to get in return.

Cabrera is a complete hitter: He hits for average, has outstanding plate discipline and outstanding power, something that may even be helped by getting him away from Florida's ballpark, which kills right-handed power. (Cabrera's not a dead-pull hitter, but like any right-handed power hitter, he hits his fair share out to left.) He turns 25 in April, so there's even a chance he'll take his power up another level, which would make him a 40-plus home run hitter.

The main concern with him is his defense. He's a butcher at third base, and only part of that is due to his weight gain. The Tigers could field a better defensive club if they pushed Cabrera into left field and let Inge -- who is a better hitter than he showed in 2007 -- play third every day, or if they pushed Cabrera to first base and put Carlos Guillen at third.

Jayson Stark, analyzing the trade, says this shows the different directions the Marlins and Tigers are headed in.

December 5, ESPN.com: None of the four guys heading for Florida who are not named Maybin or Miller is going to be a star. In fact, the most upbeat adjective we heard about any of them from scouts we surveyed was "solid." But here's the good news:

If Maybin and Miller don't turn into stars, something is wrong.

So this will be one tough, relentless lineup, packed with smart, experienced hitters who don't do much swinging and missing. The Tigers nearly scored 900 runs this season, with Sheffield hurting, with Rodriguez walking only nine times all year and with very little production out of left field.

Now they've added Cabrera and a shortstop who almost won the NL batting title (Renteria). So this might very well be the best lineup in baseball next year, bar none.

Analyzing the fantasy baseball impact of the deal, ESPN.com's Chris Harris writes that the Tigers pitching in their farm system is all but gone after the trades the Tigers have made the past two years.

Not that it's not a fair deal. It is. It's just a patented Marlins-are-playing-for-2010 arrangement that swings the balance of power in the big leagues even further in the American League's direction. The first two guys Florida got are likely to be big-leaguers in 2008 (more on that in a moment), while Trahern (a sinker specialist) and De La Cruz (a flamethrower who touches 100) were the best pitchers left in the Tigers organization other than Porcello. Given how quickly Humberto Sanchez, Jair Jurrjens and Kevin Whelan have disappeared from the Detroit system in the past calendar year, here's hoping Porcello is renting, not buying.

CNNSI's Tom Verducci says the Tigers acquisitions now make them one of baseball's elite.

December 4, CNNSI: Two years ago the Tigers hadn't managed a winning season in the entire wild card era and were getting money handed to them from richer franchises in baseball's revenue sharing system. Now? With one pennant in their pocket, a record signing bonus to a high school pitcher that blew up Bud Selig's "slotting" system, and a lineup next season that could push 1,000 runs, they've officially joined the Red Sox, Yankees, Indians and Angels as premier teams. They might push $120 million in payroll -- it was $46 million as recently as 2004 -- and they're so loaded they'll probably carry a $6 million utility player, the new job for erstwhile third baseman Brandon Inge.

Cabrera and Renteria replace Inge and Sean Casey in the Tigers lineup. (Shortstop Carlos Guillen moves to first, replacing Casey in the field). That's two guys with OPSs of .963 and .860 replacing two guys with OPSs of .746 and .688.

Over at FoxSports.com, Ken Rosenthal writes that the Tigers trade makes them the early favorites in the American League for 2008.

December 4, FoxSports.com: Cabrera, 24, already has lost 15 pounds this off-season, according to his close friend, White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen.

As good as he is, imagine how good he can be.

If anything, the bigger question for Cabrera might come if he signs a long-term contract with the Tigers and outlasts Leyland and Co. But by then, he might be a winner of multiple World Series, a mature professional with a strong work ethic, the new Manny Ramirez.

This trade, though, was all about the Tigers. Let the Red Sox and Yankees battle over Johan Santana. The Tigers might be the team to beat in the American League.

Scott Miller of CBS Sportsline agrees.

December 4, CBS Sportsline: Having already acquired shortstop Edgar Renteria from Atlanta earlier this winter and re-signed free agent Kenny Rogers, the Tigers now are loaded on paper and owner Mike Ilitch obviously is serious in his attempt to get back to the World Series. The Tigers were able to add Cabrera, one of the game's best young sluggers, and starting pitching depth in Willis without sacrificing anyone who figured to be on their opening day roster in 2008.

Coming off of a disappointing 2007 follow-up campaign to their '06 World Series appearance, the Tigers are so much better now on paper than they were in either of the past two seasons. Even at that, they won the AL pennant in '06 and finished second in their division, only eight games behind Cleveland, in '07 during an injury-ravaged season in which Rogers, key relievers Joel Zumaya and Fernando Rodney and designated hitter Gary Sheffield all missed significant time.

In pulling off this deal, Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski has given manager Jim Leyland a team that not only will contend for the AL Central title, but a club that -- if healthy -- stacks up with the Angels, New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and Cleveland as the most powerful in the AL.

Jeff Passan writes for Yahoo Sports that the trade talks began when Jim Leyland sidled up to a Marlins executive and said simply "We want Cabrera."

December 4, Yahoo Sports: Only a handful of GMs would consider trading a player of Maybin's caliber, though Dombrowski is hardly your paint-by-numbers executive. In four years, he has turned the Tigers from a 119-loss laugh track to a perennial World Series contender, and this move only strengthens their cause.

Over the last two days, as baseball's winter meetings soldiered on with lots of talk and little action, the Tigers maneuvered like fighter pilots, doing all their work in back channels. Early Tuesday their manager, Jim Leyland, did slip a bit, approaching a Marlins executive in the lobby and whispering, "We want Cabrera."

Bluster it wasn't. The Tigers knew the Los Angeles Angels dilly-dallied too long in the Cabrera sweepstakes and that once they agreed to surrender Maybin and Miller, he was theirs to lose. And losing out on baseball's best young hitter alongside Albert Pujols was a feeling with which they refused to acquaint themselves.

The only negative story I could find? Yahoo Sports' Sean Deveny, who wrote that the Tigers trade, while nice, did not address their biggest need, bullpen help.

December 4, Yahoo Sports: Detroit wanted to hit back at the Indians, and they did with a deal that wasn't exactly necessary--just a few days ago, Dombrowski speculated that he'd have a quiet time at the winter meetings, and that the roster was set. Detroit scored the third-most runs in baseball last year. Now, they've added Renteria, Cabrera and outfielder Jacque Jones. The rotation was settled. The staff had some struggles last year, with elbow problems hampering Jeremy Bonderman and Kenny Rogers (who also had surgery on a blood clot). But the first four starters were set--Justin Verlander, Bonderman, Rogers and Nate Robertson. They'll be joined by Willis.

The big problem, of course, is the bullpen, where Joel Zumaya is out for at least half the year and Detroit will hope that Fernando Rodney can bounce back and be an effective setup man for closer Todd Jones. That problem has gone unaddressed.

That's what makes the Tigers' pursuit of Willis and Cabrera of particular interest. More pitching and more hitting are welcome, but they weren't desperate for either guy. This trade is not necessarily rational, and the speed at which it went down--the two teams were seen cuddling up to each other just hours ago--indicates that there was some impulse buying here. Sometimes, finishing second makes a team do irrational things. That's the best indication that the Indians and Tigers have developed into a full-blown rivalry, a la Yankees-Red Sox. One's success is making the other take drastic action.